Feminism as Cliché: When You’re Just Another Privileged White Girl

Posted on | August 20, 2017 | 3 Comments

 

 

 

Where to start? Hood College is a notorious lesbian school and it’s a mystery why its enrollment keeps declining. Originally founded as a strict Calvinist college for women, Hood admitted male students in the 1970s, becoming coed just about the time it ceased to be Christian.

Hood is a bastion of far-left politics in conservative western Maryland. Republicans are persona non grata on the faculty and, while there are occasional rumors of heterosexuality on campus, the school’s reputation is such that when guys in Frederick see girls wearing Hood College T-shirts, their reaction is, “Oh, don’t bother. They’re lesbians.”

The Feminist Student Union at Hood might be more influential if it wasn’t so redundant, being more or less coterminous with the Queer Student Union, which is basically the entire student body.

Ellie Blaser is a recent Hood College graduate who works for a non-profit “social justice” organization. She is an “intersectional” feminist,” i.e., she hates everything white, male, capitalist, heterosexual and/or Republican. Or maybe she’s just name-checking black lesbian Audre Lorde in a sort of virtue-signaling gesture. It’s hard to tell with these young Third Wave types sometimes, but when a rich girl (a) feels obliged to denounce herself as “privileged, white, cisgendered” and (b) attended a left-wing indoctrination center like Hood, you know she’s got to be dealing with multiple layers of neurotic self-hatred.

 

Being an “intersectional” feminist means believing all males are sexist oppressors — “OH MY GOD MEN ARE THE WORSTTTTT,” to quote Ellie Blaser — even if you claim to be heterosexual, as Ellie Blaser did twice, in a badly-written January 2016 screed on her Tumblr blog:

I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that in the last couple years, “feminism” has become a buzzword.
I’m not saying that’s a bad thing — anyone who knows me could probably guess that I’m all for it. Feminism is, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.” Today in 2016 we still live in a world where women everywhere are constantly put at a disadvantage because of their gender (not to mention various other struggles many women face in regards to their race and presence within the LGBTQ+ community). As such, I’m all for feminism becoming a wider used word, something that any and everybody can feel comfortable and proud using. When I was in high school just a few years ago, I would only reluctantly call myself a feminist, out of fear of being ridiculed or called a “feminazi” (both of those things did happen over the course of my high school career). So yes I’m happy that positive connotations of the word have become more popular. Why wouldn’t I? . . .

Did I mention that Ellie Blaser majored in communications at Hood College? Did I mention that the annual cost to attend Hood is $48,740 including tuition, room and board? Never mind. Continue, Ms. Blaser:

Since feminism’s foray into pop culture, there have been countless articles and think-pieces written about what exactly it takes to be a “good feminist,” and more importantly, what would put you in the bad category. (If you want to read more about this specifically, I would check out Roxane Gay’s “Bad Feminist,” which I haven’t actually gotten around to reading myself but which I hear is great.) This can be a confusing and uncomfortable topic of conversation for anyone who is at all interested in social justice and also happens to enjoy most popular mainstream pieces of media, because fun fact for those of you who might not have caught on, but the majority of television shows, movies, books, and music (etc.) that we usually consume are pretty sexist. (It also goes without saying that they are also often racist, homophobic, etc.) This isn’t something I’m saying as an exaggeration — it’s quite simply and truly a fact. . . .

Well, you can read the rest of that. Or try to read it, I should say. The quoted excerpts are sufficient to demonstrate that, whatever else she may have learned at Hood College, she didn’t learn to write a persuasive essay, nor even a coherent paragraph. You might be surprised to learn that her collegiate dream was to “live in a fancy apartment in the city, writing for some cool magazine and spending my nights being [pursued] by attractive men who appreciate my looks and even more so my feminism.”

Dreams die hard, when your college doesn’t bother teaching basic prose composition. As for attractive men who might appreciate Ms. Blaser’s looks, obviously none of them attended Hood College, where the enrollment is 63% female and, as the Frederick boys say, “Why bother?”

Readers are at liberty to appreciate Ms. Blaser’s looks, if they wish, but the question is, why should “attractive men” appreciate her feminism? Perhaps times have changed since I was a young bachelor, but I’d imagine that the minute a college girl says the word “intersectionality” aloud, every heterosexual male in the room takes this as his cue to exit: “Oh, dear God, here comes another screechy ‘rape culture’ lecture.”

Why do girls at private liberal arts colleges keep telling these Tales of the Oppressive Patriarchy? Do they expect anyone to believe they are “constantly put at a disadvantage because of their gender”? Do these juvenile feminists even believe their own propaganda?

Never mind the rhetorical questions, however, because last November, a week before Election Day, Ellie Blaser published a column in the Hood College student newspaper with the headline, “Being a Feminist in the Age of Trump,” which began:

Calling yourself a feminist isn’t always the easiest thing to do.
Despite its pretty straight-forward meaning, which according to Dictionary.com is, “advocating social, political, legal, and economic rights for women equal to those of men”, the term feminism has been misused and misinterpreted for years, developing a reputation that tends to illicit more disdain than anything else.
As someone who has been self-identifying as a feminist since high school, I’ve gotten used to receiving all sorts of negative reactions. I’ve had guys immediately try and argue why I shouldn’t call myself a feminist, and other guys drag famous women’s equality advocates through the mud, as if somehow by discrediting them I’ll change my mind.
There are people who tell me the term feminist is offensive, because it “excludes men,” and other people tell me it’s dumb to believe in feminism, because in 2016 things are equal. And then there’s my favorite: a raised eye, judgmental tone. “Oh. You’re a feminist?”
As if it’s so ridiculous.
And I want to be clear, these reactions don’t just come from men. I’ve had women and girls telling me that I shouldn’t identify as a feminist for as long as I’ve had men doing so. . . .

Notice, first, that Ms. Blaser wrote “illicit” (adjective) when she meant “elicit” (verb), suggesting that “How to Use a Dictionary” is not to be found anywhere in the Hood College curriculum. More importantly, however, Ms. Blaser’s account of reactions to her self-declared feminism suggests that young guys haven’t been paying attention to my oft-repeated advice: Never talk to a feminist.

Guys who “immediately try and argue why I shouldn’t call myself a feminist” are fools. As soon as she declares herself a feminist, as I say, the smart young man’s reaction should be to walk away in silence:

Guys: Learn to take a hint. Learn to walk away.
If a woman tells you she is a feminist, say nothing and walk away.
No feminist wants to hear what a man has to say, and life is too short to waste your time talking to feminists. Just walk away.
Leave feminists alone, and then they can complain about that.
There is no point arguing with a feminist. There is nothing to discuss. The feminist has complete contempt for males. She considers men useless and irrelevant. She has no respect for you. The fact that you are a man means you are automatically wrong about everything. She is the judge, jury and prosecutor, and all men are guilty. Case closed.

The reason why feminists think all men are stupid is because no intelligent man would ever waste time talking to a feminist.

Let the young man ask himself this: Would a woman even mention feminism to a guy if she was attracted to him? Of course not. Every woman with a lick of common sense understands that men find feminist rhetoric insulting. Therefore, if a guy meets a woman and she starts talking feminism, he may assume that she does so to insult him.

Or maybe she just doesn’t have a lick of common sense.

Either way, no intelligent man would waste his time talking to her. The feminist is emotionally committed to the belief that males are an oppressive enemy, and that she is a victim of the patriarchy, and no amount of logical argument will ever persuade her otherwise. Like a schizophrenic in the grip of a paranoid delusion, or a devoted member of a religious cult, the feminist is beyond the reach of facts and logic.

Even if a guy otherwise found Ellie Blaser attractive — hey, take a look and decide for yourself — does he really want to get involved with the kind of girl who thinks it’s clever to name-check Audre Lorde? Factor in her deficiencies in prose composition, her inability to tell the difference between “illicit” and “elicit,” and also consider that she went to Hood College, and Ms. Blaser’s not exactly a premium-quality selection.

Dear Everyone: Please Stop Telling Me I’m
Vapid and Self-Absorbed for Posting Selfies

That was the headline on a Tumblr rant Ms. Blaser published a couple of years ago, and I don’t know how to begin describing her “argument,” except to say it is a Gordian knot of tangled solipsistic gibberish.

Ellie Blaser is a 21st-century cliché, the “privileged, white, cisgendered” girl with a “passion for feminism and social justice” who goes to a private liberal arts college, spews incoherent nonsense on social media, and can’t understand why guys don’t like her. Hypothetically heterosexual, but with not much prospect of turning theory into practice, she devotes herself to lashing out at the demonized scapegoat, Donald Trump.

 

 

You see, as Ms. Blaser says, “social justice is a journey” — down a certain road that is proverbially paved with good intentions. No hope of persuading her to turn back now. Might as well wish her Bon voyage!

Once a young feminist has spent four years at a $48,740-a-year “social justice” factory like Hood College, she’s irretrievably doomed.

 

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